Walmart Testing Out Grocery Pickup Store Concept

June 16, 2017

The nation's largest brick and mortar retailer gearing up to fight rival Amazon's grocery concept.

The nation’s largest retailer by physical footprint is making great strides in the e-commerce segment by testing innovative concepts that combine digital and physical assets that enable customers to shop when, where and how they want. In addition to a new standalone grocery pickup storefront, the company is currently experimenting with the following concepts:

Walmart Free Curbside Grocery Pickup Service

Currently being offered in 27 markets, the Walmart Free Curbside Grocery Pickup Service features more than 30,000 items – including fresh produce, meat and seafood, dairy, bakery items, plus health and beauty products –ordered online and picked up for free at a participating store.

Walmart Pickup and Fuel

The Walmart Pickup and Fuel is a new kind of gas station that offers more than just coffee, snacks, and fuel currently being tested in Huntsville, Alabama and Thornton, Colorado. These These specialty convenience stores offer same-day pickup for groceries ordered online.

Pickup Tower

The Pickup Tower is a high-tech vending machine for your online orders. Located within a handful of select stores, this feature allows you to pick up items in less than a minute by scanning a bar code sent to your smartphone.

Rideshare Delivery

Walmart has partnered with Uber in Phoenix and Lyft in Denver to deliver groceries to your home. Customers place grocery orders online and select a delivery window. Store associates will assemble the order and a driver from a rideshare service will pick up the order and deliver directly to the customer’s location (home or work). There is a $7-10 delivery charge online, and no payment is made directly to the driver from the customer at time of delivery.

Employee Delivery

Walmart acquired e-commerce giant Jet.com in 2016 for $3.3 billion. Jet.com founder Marc Lore quickly integrated his proprietary price-saving technology to lure customers into Walmart’s bugeoning e-commerce platform. Lore also rolled out a ‘one of a kind’ last-mile delivery service, using store-based employees to deliver packages to customers on their way home from work. The company claims that 90% of the US population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart store, so leveraging this remarkable footprint is seen as a key part of the company’s e-commerce strategy. The service is currently being tested in two New Jersey stores as well as a store in Arkansas.